In the late 1980s, Australian sociologist Raewyn Connell described the ways that white middle-class men
used their power and positions to suppress traditionally socially marginalised groups such as women, gay men and working-class men.
Connell suggests that what he calls"hegemonic masculinity," a type of culturally
dominant masculinity that he distinguishes from other subordinated masculinities, is a socially constructed cultural ideal that, while it does not correspond to the actual personality of the majority of men, sustains patriarchal authority and legitimizes a patriarchal political and social order.